My Grand Plan for BiCon?

[baratron]

barakta said something that I thought was rather interesting and has made me all Inspired. For a while I've been wondering what sort of workshop I'd like to run at BiCon, and trying to work out what's missing from the current list that I'd like to see. I haven't been able to think of any Good Ideas that either a) aren't already being provided by someone or b) haven't already been run multiple times before.

Anyway, apparently quite a lot of people are stressed out by the fairly basic kitchen facilities at this year's BiCon. So I think my contribution this year will be formally volunteering to provide a vegan hot meal on one or both nights. I'll be in one of the ensuite flats which has a "large kitchen (ideal for parties)" with an "electric cooker with 4 rings, grill and oven", and hopefully on the ground floor. The boy & I already own a 3 litre saucepan from Ikea and a massive 10 litre one, so I could do pasta with a choice of tomato & pepper sauce and/or vegan pesto on one night, and something like fried rice with peas, carrots and peppers or tomato rice with chickpeas on another night. (These are my absolutely bog standard recipes that I can make in my sleep and that can easily be scaled up - I've made the tomato rice with chickpeas for 40 or so people before.) I might have to buy a second 10 litre pan - but oh, having to obtain more kitchen hardware? The hardship! *hand-staple-forehead* ;) There might even be dessert if I am sufficiently organised in the week before BiCon.

Obviously there is a limit to the amount of food that I could make, but if people could pre-register their desires for a meal (with priority given to people with access needs or low incomes, and people doing important jobs that night), it could work. It would also be relatively cheap, though I can't say how much without a bit more research. I can't guarantee that the food at the bottom of the pan wouldn't be burned, but I have never given anyone food poisoning in my life. I don't have one of those food hygiene certificate thingies though - would that be a problem? It would also have to be Bring Your Own Plate And Cutlery, as a) I don't have 30 or 40 plates, b) I don't want to wash up 30 or 40 plates as well as the humungous pans, c) disposable is Bad For The Environment.

Does this sound like a good idea? If so, I'll type up a menu and post it on the BiCon community. Some people will probably bitch even then, or moan that they are allergic to some fundamental ingredient in the recipe. (At least it's easy enough to do separate gluten-free pasta in Yet Another pan if someone gives me clear instructions about the type of gluten-free they can eat and how the hell you cook it. The sauce consists of tomatoes, peppers, garlic olive oil and black pepper, so is naturally gluten-free already.)

I wonder if I could get Ocado or Sainsbury's to deliver food straight to BiCon so I wouldn't need to lug it all the way from here? Hmmm.

Comments

[taimatsu]

Gosh, that sounds amazing. Depending on what's happening when, I'd volunteer to help chop vegetables and the like if you need that sort of help.

My large-scale-cooking feats so far have only extended to rice-noodle stirfry (with meat and veggie options) for 14, cooked on one gas-ring with two pans on a campsite in the dark :) That was entertaining - mostly afterwards, though :)

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Let's edit this again. Sorry for the spam, if you receive comment emails ;)

Assuming that we were to do the tomato pasta and one of the rice meals, I'd probably do the pasta on the first night. This means I could pre-prepare the peppers to go in the sauce at home before I go, and would limit the amount of faffage needed on the day. As well as removing a lot of the time-critical aspects of the food preparation.

Then, Friday night would simply involve combining the ingredients and cooking for the right amount of time (ALWAYS much longer when you scale up). While it's cooking, we could start all the preparation for the Saturday night rice thing. Carrots are a pain to chop into cubes.

I've figured out that I could bulk-make chocolate crunchie cakes at home before I go and simply have to transport them, for one night's meal. Then for a second night, I could use a certain Voucher that I've had since Christmas. (It's for £40 worth of Cake from a Bakery for Difficult Diets.)

So yes, one or more co-chefs, who are prepared to cope with My Way Of Doing Things would be welcome. I warn you that I am apparently very bossy in the kitchen! I don't mean to be!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm thinking/hoping/praying that the preparation time on Friday will be from 16:00 to 17:20. This will mean missing Session four and the Announcements, but I hope this will be enough time to make the Friday meal as well as preparing veg ready for Saturday. This is because Saturday will be much tighter for time as there is the BiCon Photo from 16:00-16:20... and ARGH, the Decision Making Plenary from 16:30-17:30 :/ I'm not really willing to miss that. Buggery. Mind you, I suppose I could get the rice mostly cooked before the plenary, and just tell people that the meal won't be available until 18:00. Restaurants leave rice in a big pan for a couple of hours all the time. Or, er, find someone who doesn't care about the Decision Making to guard it?

Wait... why on earth does the timetable allocate 90 minutes for lunch but only 60 min for dinner? Wouldn't it be better to have both meal breaks the same length, 75 minutes? Ergle.

I'm now wondering how you drain a 10 litre pan containing around 8 kg of contents, anyway. Can you get some sort of giant sieve? Oooh, catering supply shop time. The hardship! ;D

[lovingboth]

We may be able to stretch the official dinner gap by 15 mins, but it's shorter because we know that many people will either go offsite to eat dinner (there's a 'curry mile' in Leicester that I think is bigger than the Manchester one) or otherwise skip the evening slot.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

How close is it to the campus? And there curry places open at lunchtime? *shout out to Grant if he's listening*

[lovingboth]

Car or taxi journey - into the centre and it's one of the A roads going erm... west I think.

I expect they are.

[barakta]

May I have a plate. I am happy to pay towards ingredients and bring my own eat-offables :)

[baratron.livejournal.com]

What do you think about the practicality of getting a supermarket delivery company to bring the large sacks of rice & pasta directly to BiCon? Is there someone who could receive them on Thursday, & somewhere they could be stored? It would certainly save a fair bit of faff.

[barakta]

I don't know if supermarkets will deliver to the venue, but we will be there from 10:00 onwards and can sign for, and store a specific amount of stuff behind the reception desk or in a corner of the quiet room.

Another option is to specifically request a car person going to ASDA from BiCon collects some stuff for you while they are there - this could be done in advance on LJ etc.

[x-mass.livejournal.com]

do we need to bring microwaves ooops sorry combination microwave ovens? Microwaves you can get anywhere

[lovingboth]

There are also numerous South Asian food shops in Leicester who would do the large sacks of rice cheaply.

Grant's worth asking about particular recommendations.

[x-mass.livejournal.com]

food shopping can be done via car
were wondering about brining our refrigerating ice cream maker
also do we need to bring a microwave (or 2)?